The Institute
by Don Socrates
Summary: This is a complete OC story, but it's a backstory to my Fall of Pandora story; detailing what went wrong with the Death's Messengers. You asked for it, so here it is; it won't be anywhere near as long as the Fall, possibly only thirty to forty thousand wo
1. The Hospital

**The Institute **

The Institute. I've never really disliked a location before, but if ever I could qualify a singular place; this was it. A super high tech facility that was hidden below an old abandoned hospital. The Institute itself was most likely an experimentation held by a higher power, whoever was funding this little project. It was a completely self-sustaining underground fallout shelter for all intents and purposes. It was several miles deep and ran for miles long in each direction. Transport to various different districts was mainly the multiple sets of connected tunnels that had powered cart trains that could safely take passengers across.

The job was to get in and figure out the problem, then to find a solution to the problem. The Institute was where all of the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan so to speak. It had everything that a facility like this could ever possibly want. At the deepest level there was a fully functional nuclear reactor that housed several different nuclear chambers which in turn gave power to everything in the entire institute. Between the reactor and the civilisation dwelling in the institute was several miles of rock and solid steel doors that could only be activated by the two leaders of the facility.

Two microchips that were implanted within their bodies, unknown even to them the exact location for each chip. It was a silent process but then, there has never been reason for anyone to go to the nuclear vaults. It would mean a painful and drawn out death for anyone who did. If not from the radioactive heat, then from the radiation sickness that would burn you out from the inside.

I was serving in an elite division of a galaxy wide renowned mercenary group known as the Death's Messengers. We were created for the sole purpose of completing the jobs that no one else could do. Our charging fees were always outrages, but then so was our perfect success rate when you looked at the job lists we had completed. What made matters even more ridiculous was that there was only five of us in the whole unit. Five Death's Messengers, each one as deadly as the next. We did however get to the point where there were stories about each of us. It was a comradeship as strong as the chains of Hell; if you believe that kind of thing.

Our unit never needed any more than the five of us, and we only ever all went if it was a contractor that was involved with war; those kinds of missions you always need someone you trust covering your back. My name is Ten, I don't have a surname, never needed one and never saw any point to taking one; I would make a name for myself that no one would ever forget when working with the Death's Messengers. I was possibly the most powerful in the entire elite division.

I was considered by many as simply not human for the superhuman strength and speed I shown in battle. A tendency for tenacity, a determination unrivalled by any other human being alive. But that wasn't what made me stick out, what gave me a name for myself was the fact that I am a being so full of rage that I can physically and mentally change into a demon-like image of a man. It's me but burning with the angst and pain of a lifetime of suffering; every bad thing merely adds to the animal inside. The change was so real, I burned with such an intense anger, and those eyes, as red as blood, a blood haze that always stayed. They used to call me the Harbinger of Hell.

The man that I recruited for the fifth place in our elite division, a man named Jace Torgue, who came to be my best friend. I recruited him by entering his uncle's tournament and taking a pounding before I forfeited and recruited him, we've been friends ever since.

The twins that had the most unknown and mysterious background of anyone that you will ever meet. Not much is known about them, although I'm sure that they were experimented on harshly at a young age. I doubt that even they know their real names anymore. The guy goes by the call-sign; Gamma, whilst his younger sister does the same with Beta. They both have immense metal power; he can use his mind to manipulate everything on a telekinetic level, interacting with the world around him using only the powers of though, whilst his sister uses her power to manipulate every single cell within her own body. She can morph every aspect of herself, she can even duplicate cells to create more mass to morph with. The rule she has for herself is that if she can think of it, she can turn into it.

The leader of our little band of misfits is none other than the beautiful Captain; Alex Rose. Death's Messenger, Commander, and lover. It's obvious between our own unit, but then there's only five of us. Gamma and Beta don't care what happens so long as they get paid.

We landed in the desert, a very small area that was suitable for our automated drop-ship to leave us to do the mission. It was dusty and soon any activity within the facility would have been shrouded by the upcoming sandstorm.

"Gamma, Beta; perimeter control. No doubt our activities will attract the locales, friendly or bandits. Either way, no one comes in, and no one other than us comes out. If they're initially friendly, just send them away. If they're gun totting psychopaths, well, then you're free to sue lethal force." Rose spoke quickly and professionally. She got to the old rusted front entrance to the hospital and merely lifted her booted heel and kicked the door open with grace before walking inside.

"Order's bitch?" Jace asked bluntly. She tolerated his bad attitude and massive disrespect for two reasons; firstly, because I asked her to, and secondly; because he more than pulled his own weight. It wasn't rare for him to save the day on occasions. She mainly kept him around because regardless of their disposition to each other, he actually followed her orders to the dot with unwavering loyalty.

Sweep the two upper levels then we regroup at the entrance to the Institute, myself and the Commander here will take the East and West wing of this floor. Stay frosty." She said as each one of us branched off from the others and headed to our respective areas. For the most part, the entire hospital was abandoned. Apart from the area where I ended up getting into a fist fight with a badass Skag matriarch. I guess it's time for me to get back to where Rose wants me, it's not good to get her angry, especially on an edgy mission like this. It's probably just me, but something doesn't quite feel right with this place.


	2. The Entrance

**Chapter 2**

**[A/N: OK, I got a few messages about the timeline of my stories from the Borderlands universe so I'll clarify right now. The very base back story is 'High-school for the Certifiable Insane' by SW4G-M4N. I have permission to use that as my back story. From the end of that, once their memories have all been erased, this story takes place, a year before the events of the 'The List' which is also a new story. Straight after that, and I mean literally straight after The List; The Fall takes place. OK, that's covered everything. Sorry about the huge A/N, but it was necessary. Enjoy this chapter :)]**

* * *

Walking through the dusty corridors I suddenly came to the harsh realization that I was incredibly bored and had nothing else to do. I might as well try and find some way to entertain myself.

"Hey Jace?" I asked over the walkie talkie strapped to my shoulder. It took a moment but I heard the fain sound of noise interference before we were both connected on our private frequency and able to talk.

"Yeah?" He responded quietly. I doubt he's had anything interesting happen to him. I don't even know why Rose would want us to scout the hospital, there's nothing particularly interesting about it. Our scout reports came back with abandoned with small signs of wildlife. Nothing great above the Institute of thriving life below our feet.

"Marco." I snickered at my own immaturity. "Polo." He whispered back over the radio. If Rose caught us doing that she would discipline us when we got back from the mission. I wouldn't have been disciplined anywhere outside of the bedroom though; oh the joys of being the lover of a commanding officer.

"Sitrep." I heard Rose's voice cut through the silence. Well, nothing else is going to happen anytime soon, I mas as well mess around with her for a little bit.

"This is Commander Ten; I'm currently stuck on Rakkeria with a chafe situation that came straight from the depths of Tartarus. What's happening your end?" I answered her demand. I'm actually probably going to regret taking this situation lightly but in my defence there really is nothing else to do around here. I've nearly completed my thorough sweep of the hospitals left wing and I assume that Jace has nearly finished his area.

"Isn't Tartarus Hell from Greek mythology? On your home planet?" She responded, a little bit confused as to why I compared it to my thighs being a little bit fractious.

"Yes. What's your point?" I'm well aware that she knows that already so why is she asking me? She researched the whole of my home planet. But since the incident with Jacobs and Maliwan, I'll never be able to go back to Earth again. She knows not to bring it up.

"You were born in London. Why are you making a comparison with Greek mythology?" OK, this is really getting on my nerves, I know what she's trying to do, she's trying to get a reaction out of me. She's probably come to an impasse that only my inner demon can resolve. She knows that above all else I'll always react to certain things. Like Jace, if you insult Jace's family then you'd better be ready for a tough fight.

"What exactly do you want me to do?" I sighed, getting to the point. She ordered us both to regroup. When I got there, Gamma was standing in sync with Rose, looking rather relaxed.

"Now that you're both here, I'll let you know the situation. We're investigating a distress beacon that was set off from the hyper advanced technological institute below us. The only problem is finding the entrance, we know that it's somewhere inside this facility, but beyond that we're on our own. The pay check was from an anonymous source and they didn't give details. Gamma, anything you can get from this?" She asked, looking slightly more relaxed now. I might just give in and let the demon take over, it'll probably be better than just standing around. That being said, I'll likely slaughter everyone. It's not a full moon for another two weeks, which means that Jace won't have the advantage to defend himself properly. It would only be Rose that would survive. I don't really care about Gamma or wherever Beta has gone.

"Boo." I heard a feminine voice whisper behind me. I instantly realized who it was, but I feigned surprise just to have a little bit of fun. I utilized my superhuman speed to thrust a dagger into the shoulder of Beta who muffled a scream of agony.

"Ten." Rose warned me, seeing right through my fake surprise. I sighed and gave an immature tongue sticking before violently pulling my blade out of the shape shifter's shoulder. It took her half a minute but she eventually manipulated the cells in her body to duplicate and replace the damaged and dead ones, soon enough covering the entire wound and healing it.

"Enough of this. If you want to live, I'd suggest moving away." I said casually. I really don't care at this point. There comes a time when on a mission that if there's nothing interesting or no action about, I'll just goad my demon for the fun of it, the thrill of the blood hunt. I'm not going to transform any time soon and I'm sure as hell not going to willingly let him take over, but at that precise moment, I utilized him, I brought forth a great burning fire in my right arm. A flame built up form agony and rage, so hot that it could burn through any binds. I slammed my fist into the ground.

Once all of the fireworks had cleared and I could see clearly through the dust, I'd made quite the impressive impact. Rose was floating graciously in the air, making it look like an art form. Did I mention that she is the same as I am? Whether or not we are to be considered human, we both have immense power, supernatural power. It just comes naturally to us. Again I couldn't see Beta, maybe she got caught out in the blast. It would take her a few minutes to reform herself.

Gamma was standing still on a collection of rocks that he was mentally willing to perform as a platform of sorts. His telekinetic powers were now strong enough to hold him aloft. Isn't that fun? Jace was also effortlessly holding onto the old wooden ceiling, swinging casually with the wind and watching the show below him. He was OK with me doing my own thing as long as I didn't singe his fur. There was the one incident on one of our first missions together where we came across a village that Bandits had raided and pillaged. There was a burned doll, a child's toy. We weren't fast enough, we couldn't save them. Bandits didn't even spare the children. I couldn't help it, the demon took over and mercilessly beat the crap out of Jace. Little did he know that Jace only had to survive a few more minutes until the full moon arose. From there it was even game, where Jace held his own long enough to beat my demon down in submission.

"Well, that's one way to find the elevator." Jace laughed as he let go and fell to the roof of an old blue steel elevator which looked like it had once been immaculately kept, before I smashed half of it. I guess that means that we've at least found the entrance to the Institute. It could be possible that the beacon was centuries late and now everyone is dead from whatever went wrong inside there.


	3. A Rude Welcoming

**Chapter 3**

"Should we ACTUALLY take this elevator down or is there a faster and way more badass way of descending." Jace asked, still hanging above the empty hole on the ceiling pipes. I thought about it for a second.

"There is if you can fly." I smirked, flipping him the bird before letting my body fall through the gap next to the elevator shaft, heading towards the first level of the Institute. A thousand questions were racing through my mind at that point; the most important one was whether or not we would actually find any life down here. We'd seen the schematics and plans for this place, given the situation and what the experiment was meant for, it was a legitimate idea, one that could provide a habitable environment to harsh wastelands and planets.

I landed softly and looked up to see a big vault looking door. It was huge. The thing must weigh in at like ten tonnes! The others joined me shortly. Gamma and Beta took the simple route of slowly drifting down whilst Rose did the same as me, except she gave Jace a lift at the same time.

"This is the target?" Beta asked, her feminine voice not belonging to a galaxy wide renowned mercenary.

"Aye, but how do we get in? I doubt we can just knock and say hello." I responded, not sarcastically, but in a way that suggested that I was completely stumped on how to overcome this next obstacle. Heavy weapons wouldn't work here, the door would be too thick and if it wasn't, the gamble of losing the explosives to infectivity was too great.

"Brute force won't work here. Gamma, anything to manipulate from the other side. I can disintegrate it but it would take some time." Rose said, as she played around with her power, waving her wand slightly. You could see the metal start to rust and fall to the floor. Sure it would take time, but it was a certainty of a way into the facility.

"Nothing. Looks like you're our only way in. Unless you two simpletons have anything to add to that." Gamma looked over at us. Oooh, I'm going to punch him soon.

"Nothing of importance. I guess I could try punching it at the weak points or simply moving it, but I doubt it will budge. Possibly a joint effort." I considered. Rose looked at me the way she does when I've said something that turns her on. She often claimed that it was the way I navigated through a situation and my natural laidback attitude. I didn't exactly argue with her on it.

"We could. Jace transform. Beta, strongest form. Gamma push at the door around the rest of us." Rose gave the orders and we all lined up, Jace had transformed into a wolf nearly as tall as the door and Beta had turned into something unrecognisable but it did look strong, we all lined ourselves up with each other and on the count of three began pushing at the door. I began hearing the rock crumble. I closed my eyes to give it everything I had.

"Come on Ten, keep going buddy it's giving way." I heard Jace give me positive reinforcement. He was right, it really was going, I pushed and gave a quick burst of power, hoping that the wouldn't notice and when I opened my eyes, I gave it another push and a punch in the centre of it that marked it's breaking point. It quickly fell free of it's equally strong hinges and hit the ground with a tremendous thud. Exhausted I looked around at my squad mates who were all standing there. Jace wasn't a wolf anymore and Beta was normal. "You just stood there and watched didn't you?" I asked them, realising that I'd been conned into using my true strength, something that I didn't like revealing even to them.

"Yup. Good work, let's keep going. There must be someone around here to talk to. The beacon only went off yesterday. And I doubt a facility this high tech would have a failure with its emergency systems." Rose waved her and everyone started walking down the path that would hopefully lead us to some sort of icon of direction so that we could finally get to the bottom of this and understand why we picked up the distress call. The call itself wasn't clear enough to make out any words or sentences but we put that down to this facility being a mile underground.

We came to another security locked door, this one nowhere near as big as the vault door, and not enough of a challenge for the lot of us to do. Rose waved her hands and the locks rusted off and fell to the ground, leaving the door to open on itself freely. Inside we heard people rushing about and when we walked through we were met by a barricade of badly garrisoned people holding makeshift weapons. They probably thought that we were here to raid this place or something.

"STAY THE FUCK THERE! What are you doing here!?" A man with a big security jacket asked, with a gun pointed directly at my head.

"Go ahead. Shoot me mother fucker and see what happens." I teased, grinning wildly at the oncoming challenge, unfortunately Rose stepped in and prevented any fun.

"Ten, calm yourself. We're here to investigate the beacon. What's it about?" Rose asked, remaining neutral the whole time. The man looked depressed and dropped his gun to the ground.

"For fuck sakes! More people. Johnson, report this to Gronland." He said to the man beside him before walking up to us.

"A few days ago we uncovered a strange artefact, it was glowing and had purple trails coming off of it. Weird things started happening from there on out. We've been trapped down here ever since. We managed to blow a hole in the vault door but half an hour later it was as good as new. Nobody can escape. All of our subsystem are going crazy. We're lucky that beacon actually worked." The guard said, sounding like he was stuck in a recurring nightmare. It suddenly hit me that if they couldn't escape, then chances are we could be facing the same thing. I took charge in the situation.

"Jace, retrace steps and check the vault door, take Gamma and Beta with you. Rose and I will investigate the case further. We'll meet you wherever we end up. I'm sure that the good security guard will get someone to catch you up with us." I smiled as I holstered my weapons and we all did exactly that. Myself and Rose walking in sync behind the security guard as he led the way to whoever was in charge so that we could get a better idea of what was going on down here.


End file.
